Corvair College #35 in Barnwell, SC was a great time last weekend! The Corvair College is coordinated by William Wynne and his lovely wife Grace Ellen, with FlyCorvair.com, Shelley Tomino, and P.F. Beck and his great crew at the Barnwell, SC airport.

Our family drove up in the motorhome and pulled the Panther trailer behind it with a bunch of our Corvair parts and our Panther N515XP. The Corvair College is a grass roots event where builders of a variety of airframes come together to learn about building a Corvair flight engine. There is learning, wrenching, cleaning, camaraderie, great food and all around an excellent time had by multiple generations and variations of people. It was great to be able to drive up as a family, and have Dan pull the Panther out and go flying when the weather was clear. One of the main reasons Dan designed the Panther – to be able to take us with him and still fly his hot rod around the pattern 😉

Panther LS N515XP and a Corvair Corsa on the ramp

Over the last decade Dan has worked closely with William Wynne and his conversion components to develop his Corvair conversion parts. It always started with a personal need for Dan, whether it be on his Wicked Cleanex or the Panther prototype. We like the Corvair as an economical power plant option. It sounds great, puts out good performance and has a great track record. SPA has worked hard to streamline our parts for builders interested in using the Corvair as a powerplant for multiple air-frames.

We are also working hard to bring our Corvair 3.3L to the market. Our current obstacle is the number of new crankshafts we can produce. We are in negotiations with an additional shop in the US to produce a higher quantity of the crankshafts so we can bring down the delivery time to the end customer. We hope to have a solution by the end of the year.

Here are some photos from Corvair College #35

Andy Shorter from New Bern, NC working on installing his 3.0L pistons. He is building a 3.0L Corvair with a new billet crankshaft.

Panther builder Brent Mayo (on the right) from Fernandina Beach, FL came up on Saturday to learn from William and other builders before he starts his own 3.0L assembly at home. Here you can see him talking with Corvair builder Chuck Callahan (on left).

Panther builder Bill Mosher from Greer, SC ran his engine at this college. His Panther airframe is around 70% complete. He also picked up some his firewall forward parts from us.

After Bill had successfully tested his engine he loaded it into the back of his Honda and headed home! All of his Panther parts are loaded up front.

Here is a nice photo of some parts from SPA that Andy Shorter assembled. These are his 3.0L cylinders and connecting rods installed in the pistons. All lined up and ready to install.

Paul Salter had his 3D printer setup in the corner. This was a real attention grabber, as most have never seen one run before. Here he is printing Panther pitot quick disconnect receptacles for the folding wing. Very cool stuff!

Builder Update:

Panther Sport builder and first customer flown – Bob Woolley – has sent his Panther for paint. It should be back together and back in the air in a few days – so stay tuned for photos. We have seen pieces of the paint scheme and it is going to be one sharp cat!

Panther LS builder Tony Spicer has been busy getting his canopy installed. You can see photos HERE. He put in a 4 inch seat cushion, and has the seat slid forward, and at his height (5’10” with a 28″ inseam) he still has 2″ of head room. (The seat, as it slides forward, also moves higher – like some car positioners). Check out his build progress at the link above.

Panther LS builder Will Mensink is also making great progress. He is powering his Panther LS with a Titan o-340.

Panther LS builder Stephen Pedano has made excellent progress on his build and has his DAR inspection scheduled. He presented his Panther LS at our EAA chapter meeting this morning. His Panther LS is powered by an overhauled Lycoming 0-320 conical E3B. He is using a Whirlwind Ground Adjustable propeller, GRT Sport 8.5″ unit, Matco wheels and brakes and has the elevator counter balance option installed. His empty weight is 821 lbs as it stands in the photos below.

Nice job Steve! More information in the next few weeks as his Panther LS takes it’s first flight.